This publication reviews significant research in 1969 in the field of oral language in early childhood and reading. In general the paper discusses only those areas where these three topics intersect; thus detailed treatment is given only to language in early childhood education and language in relation to reading. Initial comments deal with research on language development itself. Part 1, "Language Development," deals with knowledge about language use, cross-cultural research, and adult-child interaction. Part 2, "Early Child Education," discusses classroom interaction, program effectiveness, assumptions about language, tests, and teaching via television. Part 3, "Language and Reading," considers phonological competence, syntactic and semantic competence, and the problem of matching reading materials to the child. An eight page bibliography listing all the works referred to in the body of the paper is appended. (FWB)